Don Garrison - Scholarship Award
Simon (CEO Numerical Innovations, Inc) and his father Don Garrison. September 2015.
Purpose: To Inspire Black and Hispanic children (between the ages of 10-17), who have the potential to become future technology leaders. The Don Garrison Scholarship was started in 2000, immediately after Simon Garrison sold his first company for approximately $2 million (USD). Sponsored by Numerical Innovations Inc, a black owned technology business.
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Background: Don Garrison was born in New Orleans, Louisiana during the late 1940's in the segregated Deep South. In the late 1960's he moved to San Francisco, California in search of opportunity. He was mathematically talented and even during "Silicon Valley's" huge growth period of the 1970's (when companies like Atari, Apple, and Oracle were all founded), was never offered any jobs in technology.
In the early 1980's, his son Simon received the highest mathematical IQ test score at school. Don made sure his son was going to have the opportunity he was never offered. Don and his wife - maxed out their Macy's credit card to buy an Apple IIe computer for their son.
Simon Garrison with Apple IIe Computer
"I was very blessed to have parents who sacrificed and inspired me to deeply learn computer languages 'down to the assembly language level' at such an early age. I competed and won several middle-school computer programming awards, giving me the confidence to later start my own technology company. I want to offer that same opportunity to other kids." - Simon Garrison (CEO Numerical Innovations, Inc.)
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If you are a gifted child (or the parent/guardian of a gifted child) who could greatly benefit from an early opportunity to have the latest Apple computer and software development tools available - please submit the form (below) to be considered for the Don Garrison Scholarship Award.